Darkness & Redemption
by Cyberchao X
Summary: When a trip to the Outrealms pairs the army up with some of history's greatest villains, Robin learns that his wife has repressed some seriously traumatic memories. RobinXTiki; also may loosely imply who Roy's mother was.


Darkness & Redemption  
by Cyberchao X

Disclaimer: All characters are property of Nintendo and Intelligent Systems.

A/N: So recently I was combing through the Fire Emblem wiki in order to beef up some TV Tropes pages and I found a truly haunting conversation in the script for Rogues & Redeemers 2. The more I contemplated it, the more it disturbed me, and so…a rare darkfic.

* * *

It had been a mistake to bring her along. That much should've been obvious, and Robin was mad at himself for not seeing it. It was…selfish, perhaps. This Outrealm had some of the toughest Einherjar yet, so of course pairs who worked well together were a must, but…he could've sat this battle out himself, rather than bring his beloved along. He'd heard what the Einherjar of Marth had said last time, about the girl whom Tiki reminded him of…

"_The girl has been through terrible hardships despite her age. The least I can do is stand by her until she finds a happy future."_

It was obvious that these Einherjar, in addition to being stronger than the ones they'd faced in other Outrealms, had more of the memories of the way things once were. The conversation that Lucina had had with the Einherjar of Seliph had suggested that the latter realized that it was odd to be fighting alongside his father now and remembered that he'd previously fought to avenge his father's death. And after the way previous trips to the Outrealms had gone…it shouldn't have—no, it _didn't_—come as a surprise when they'd found themselves lining up alongside the villains of the sagas of old. And yet, he'd insisted on continuing to make his plans from the front lines, which meant bringing along the magnificent woman he'd fallen in love with—the woman who'd known some of these phantoms when they were still alive.

_They'd scarcely landed when Tiki tensed up. "What? Gharnef…"_

"_Oh my," the Einherjar croaked, "Look how you've grown. Heh heh…"_

"_You stay away from me!" Robin wanted to remind her that it was only a phantom, but he was still trying to process the fact that it had recognized her, given how much younger she was when he was alive._

"_How cold… That's no way to treat a friend after all these years."_

"_You're no friend of mine. I remember how you hypnotized me—the terrible things you made me do!"_

"_As do I…as do I. But here we are, teammates. We must work together. Or will you jeopardize the entire battle over some timeworn grudge?"_

"_I'll fight with you because my army demands it. But don't expect me to even pretend to trust you, you monster."_

"_Heh. As you wish. There will be ample time to…win you over later."_

Robin had never seen Tiki look as vulnerable as she had after her encounter with Gharnef, and he'd been all too happy to keep her close to him throughout the battle. He'd gotten a bit rattled himself, nearly losing his concentration during the battle, but Morgan, bless her soul, had kept both of her parents safe. Tiki was still clearly rattled afterwards. "Tiki?"

"Oh, Robin. What is it?"

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"…Not really."

"I understand. From what I heard, it sounds like something you wouldn't want to relive."

"…No, you're right. I should…" She sat down next to Robin, inviting him to hold her close. "You heard what I said, then? That he hypnotized me and made me do terrible things?"

"Yeah… the whole tone of the conversation, though, it sounded like it wasn't just about making you do evil. Did he… did he force you to…"

Tiki nodded. "Not with him, mind you. Mercifully, that shriveled old husk had already sacrificed too much of his mind to dark magic to have retained any lust for anything other than power. But, well, power was something I had in spades, and most of the dragons that served under Medeus were male. I was…roughly the same age that Nowi is now, and well, you know what she's capable of." As an aside she muttered, "Some of them were pretty old and shriveled too."

"Then he used you as, what, _breeding stock_ to create more dragons? And more powerful dragons at that, because of your divine heritage?"

"He tried to. Dragons aren't exactly prolific breeders under the best of circumstances. Which is for the best, because I'm sure that if he'd ever succeeded in impregnating me, I'd have no doubt been pregnant when Marth found me…"

"It takes a really long time, though, doesn't it? I mean, it's not like the Nah or Morgan of this timeline have even been conceived yet—I _think_—but I remember from the Tellian sagas that an heir to the dragon tribe was born after the Divine War despite the father having died at the end of the Mad King's War, three years earlier, and having spent some unknown amount of time brainwashed into being the Mad King's mount before that."

"I'm not that familiar with Tellian lore, but unless their years were shorter than Akaneian years, manakete pregnancies don't last _that_ long. Though you're right that they're longer than human pregnancies." She went pensive for a moment. "You're the first person I've ever told about this, you know."

"Really? In over 2000 years?"

Tiki nodded. "I felt like such a fraud. Here I'm supposed to be this divine dragon, almost an earthly extension of Naga, and yet I'd been defiled so much…so frequently…"

"It's okay. Just let it all out."

"Not even Ban-Ban knew…I knew he realized that Gharnef had done _something_ horrible to me, but I never told him about this…I couldn't bring myself to." Robin was curious about who this "Ban-Ban" was, but decided to let it pass until she'd finished. "Nobody could know…"

"And Naga? Surely she wouldn't have chosen you to be her Voice if she thought you were unworthy."

"Th-that… " She thought about this. "Well, it wasn't as if I'd done it by choice…exactly…"

"It wasn't your fault."

"Wasn't it? There's a difference between hypnosis and mind control. Bantu wouldn't have been able to snap me out of it so easily if I were being outright controlled. I mean, don't get me wrong, he _was_ controlling my actions, but he was doing it by influencing my mind to believe that I wanted to do what he wanted me to do. He…he made me want it."

"Which is not the same as you actually wanting it. Let's talk about happier things. You mentioned someone named Bantu. Was that the person you earlier called 'Ban-Ban'? The only time I've heard you refer to someone in that fashion was with Marth."

"Yeah. Bantu was kind of like my caretaker when I was young. When Adrah stole the Shield of Seals from the Fane of Raman and removed the gemstones, the sage Gotoh put me under a sleep spell so that I wouldn't lose control of my power, but Bantu took pity on me and woke me up and took care of me. He was old even then, but with how long dragons live, he might still be alive somewhere."

"Gemstones…you don't mean the Fire Emblem?"

"The very same. I suppose the part about the founder of Akaneia being a thief who conquered the continent using stolen weapons was scrubbed from history. It _is_ written by the winners, after all."

"As usual, it's the humans who are the real villains. I don't suppose you're more familiar with Elibean lore than Tellian? Those legends speak of a great war in which humans drove away dragonkind, and a number of the heroes of that saga had draconic lineage. Actually, it's a very tangled saga; stretches over two generations; the second generation's villain wouldn't have lived long enough to even become evil if not for the first generation's heroes and the second generation's hero was—"

"Yes, I'm familiar with that one. The part about the Scouring is quite sad, but the way the heroes manage to prove that humans and dragons can coexist always warms my heart—especially the ending. …She's just like me."

"Who is?"

"Idoun. She was the last of her kind, too, and was used by Zephiel to try to revive dragonkind for evil purposes, just like Gharnef did with me. And Roy saved her, just like Marth and Bantu saved me. But she was able to just _create_ the war dragons. She didn't have to…"

"…They weren't real dragons, though. The war dragons she created. They were artificial constructs, little different from Nergal's morphs. You're right, though, that only Roy's half of the story has a happy ending. Nergal and Zephiel were both tragic villains, but even though Zephiel was if anything _more_ sympathetic, it's hard not to feel bad for Nergal in his dying moments, realizing that he'd lost everything he'd loved because the elder magic had consumed him too fully. …But I think your story has a happier ending than Idoun's does."

"Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. The bards didn't write much about what happened after Idoun went to live in Arcadia."

Robin kissed Tiki. "You're supposed to say that the love you found made yours the happiest ending of all."

"Fishing for compliments, are you?" Robin nodded. "Well, you do make me feel safe… And wonderful. Thank you, Robin…you're the best husband a girl could ask for.

* * *

A/N: I just can't help it. Being mushy is just my style…as is going off on tangents. Awakening does sort of establish that _all_ of the previous games' tales are at least known as legends, even though only the Akaneia games (and I suppose the Jugdral games, since those two were already established to be in the same continuity) are truly in these games' past. I suppose I did kind of hew a bit closer to Elibean lore than to Tellian, what with portraying Gharnef as having been consumed much the way dark magic-users are in Blazing Blade.

But, yeah, fic. Everything quoted in italics is actual game text, and Gharnef _really_ comes off as creepy in that conversation. From the timing of his ellipses to the way he comments on how she's grown, it almost seems like a molester—and Tiki's half of the conversation does nothing to dispel that notion; she comes off like a rape victim confronting her attacker years later. It was actually a last minute decision to not have had Gharnef himself rape her; this interpretation works just as well as the one I'd initially had. So until next time, this is Cyberchao X, signing off.


End file.
